This week it was revealed that at least 40 veterans died while waiting to see doctors in the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system. The 40 were part of over 1,000 sick vets forced to wait months to get an appointment for treatment. This occurred despite rules setting 30 days as the maximum wait time. Newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell characterized the deaths as “unfortunate, but perhaps unavoidable. Let’s not forget that the vast majority of those who died were old men. Old men die. No matter what kind of medical treatment they might...

Get ready to be blindsided by a barrage of new taxes. $1 trillion worth... They'll be coming courtesy of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. And they won't just be affecting those who make over $250,000. The bulk of these taxes will be passed on directly to the middle class. That's because while a majority of these "stealth taxes" were designed to be taxes on businesses, they're actually transferred directly to ordinary citizens. They include the investment income surtax, a Medicare payroll tax, even a "tanning tax" on those who utilize indoor tanning services. "Many of those [hidden]...

JONATHAN GRUBER, M.I.T.: Let’s start with understanding that we're not talking about the vast majority of Americans. This law is really leaving those with employer insurance, those with government insurance alone. We’re talking about a small minority of Americans that buy insurance on their own through the individual market. CHUCK TODD: Still millions of people. GRUBER: Exactly. It's 12 million people, about a third of which will end up paying more under this law. And that as you said in the introductions sort of the idea. We currently have a highly discriminatory system where if you’re sick, if you’ve been...

So let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we? Gun control was a complete non-issue during the 2012 presidential campaign, and for good reason: the rate of gun violence — like the rate of violent crime — had fallen by about half since the late 1980s. During those two decades, gun laws got looser almost everywhere, so whatever was driving down the crime rate, it wasn’t gun control. But then came the shootings at the Aurora movie theater and Sandy Hook Elementary, and suddenly nobody could think about anything else. Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York passed restrictive laws concerning...

‘I Am Willing to Give Up Some of My Constitutional Rights…to Be Safer’ The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child's scrawl. "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." They're the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution. Florida 4th Grader Brings Home Paper That Says, I Am Willing to Give Up Some of My Constitutional Rights in Order to Be Safer...paper Aaron Harvey's son wrote as...

In the message he issued along with his budget proposal on Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama said he wants to see 4-year-old children in the United States enrolled in public schools. Obama said America needs to start enrolling 4-year-olds to make sure the children are “better prepared for the demands of the global economy” and to help parents save on "child-care costs." After saying the United States needs to “equip our citizens with the skills and training” to fill jobs in manufacturing,energy and infrastructure,Obama said,“And that has to start at the earliest possible age.”

The Election of 2012 will determine whether America will be a nation of individuals living in freedom or a collective under totalitarian control. It is not about race or allegiance to a life-long political party of our parents in which my team can beat your team, or vice versa, but allegiance to one nation under God in which there is liberty and justice for all rather than the few in power. We will individually become responsible for living under the law of the Constitution, or we will collectively live under the whims of dictators as in Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela,...

The Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest public school employee organization, has claimed that a recent email from Mackinac Center Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh is “exposing the (Center) for what it really is,” because McHugh briefly stated, “Our goal is (to) outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan. …” The idea that this is “exposing” anything hidden is bizarre; the Center has long questioned collective bargaining in government and has publicly recommended its repeal. Significantly, however, the MEA is mounting the attack at the very time when policymakers are finally beginning to address the worst excesses of collective bargaining for...

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Herman Cain said he supports the "right" for public employees to bargain collectively. In other words, he is in favor of unions on the taxpayer dime. Cain also said federal workers have unions, meaning the right to collectively bargain, but they do not. On the issue of collective bargaining, Cain said he supported the right of public employees to bargain collectively. "But not collective hijacking. What I mean by that, if they have gotten so much for so many years and it's going to bankrupt the state, I don't think that's good....

"I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy." Noman wasn't aware of anyone suggesting such a thing, and might join the President to protest if he were. He does recall Republican Governors of several states, most notably Wisconsin, moving to eliminate collective bargaining in the public employee context because the conditions that make collective bargaining a right in the private sector context don't afflict the proliferating number of government workers. You need antagonists on both sides of the table arguing from different premises with different interests, and a presumption...

Ft. Worth-based Range Resources’ ugly legal battle with some North Texas landowners and the EPA over alleged groundwater contamination has taken a new turn, with the firm filing a counter-claim against the landowners. In 2010, Steven and Shyla Lipsky of rural Parker County complained to the Texas Railroad Commission — the agency that oversees drilling in Texas — about natural gas in their water well. The couple believed it was caused by drilling at two nearby Range gas wells. The Lipsky’s hired a Flower Mound-based firm, Wolf Eagle Environmental, to do water and air testing. Alisa Rich, the owner, encouraged...

MADISON, Wis. -- The state Supreme Court has asked attorneys for reasons why it should take up a lawsuit challenging Gov. Scott Walker's divisive collective bargaining plan. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne has filed a lawsuit alleging Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open meetings law during debate on the plan before Walker signed it into law in March. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi has blocked the law from taking effect while she considers the lawsuit. Sumi is expected to make a decision on the case after May 23. The state Justice Department last month asked the Supreme Court...

CHICAGO (AP) — Top Republican lawmakers in Illinois say union restrictions like the ones approved in neighboring Wisconsin aren’t the way to go. But Republican Senate leader Christine Radogno (rah-DOH’-nyoh) is calling on unions to cooperate when it comes to fixing the state’s budget crisis. She says Illinois can’t afford the level of raises that some employees have gotten. Radogno spoke to reporters Monday after appearing at an unrelated news conference with Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and House Republican leader Tom Cross. Cross says the state also has to deal with its underfunded pensions and that it behooves everyone...

Over the weekend, public employee unions held a rally in Madison where the list of speakers included Bill Franks of the American Federation of Teachers. Franks had this to say about rank-and-file Republicans: ... the would-be Republicans, anybody making $30-40,000 who think they can afford to be a Republican is not living in any kind of reality. Real Republicans don't recognize them. Because the real "haves" are them. And these people who think they can afford these [conservative] principles, they can't afford them. That's not in their self interest. That's what we gotta cure as a pathology. This is a...

The Wisconsin Legislature has abolished nearly all collective bargaining rights for public employees and required them to pay a portion of their retirement benefits. We hope this starts a badly needed nationwide trend. . .

My hubby said he thinks the republican's screwed up in Wisconsin. He said he thought public opinion would turn against them now. He thought they should have just waited the democrats out and let them sweat it out in IL. Comments and keep in nice :) it's late and I don't feel like getting yelled at.

Madison — The Senate abruptly passed a controversial budget-repair bill Wednesday night – without Democrats – and sent the measure to the Assembly, which is expected to pass it Thursday. The bill eliminates almost all collective bargaining for public workers. It passed18-1, with Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) casting the no vote. The Assembly passed an almost identical version of the bill Feb. 25.

While lawmakers in Indiana and Wisconsin continue to violate their oaths of office, senators in Ohio passed a bill to curtail collective bargaining for government employees. Naturally, not a single Democrat voted for the bill because that party has long been a puppet of the unions, bought and paid for decades ago. In Wisconsin, Democratic “lawmakers” remained outside the state in a stalemate that could last for months. Republican Gov. Scott Walker is trying to curb collective bargaining for things such as pension plans and health insurance. And in Indiana, House Democrats were cowering in Illinois, also avoiding their sworn...

Rasmussen repolled Wisconsin voters earlier in the current impasse, with Democratic legislators fleeing the capital in order to hold the legislature hostage and to stop a budget-repair bill that imposes serious reforms on public-employee unions, and the results were not pleasant for Governor Scott Walker. Voters mainly opposed efforts to change collective bargaining for PEUs, at least in general, and Walkerâ€™s approval rating has sunk underwater during the standoff. Rasmussen has repolled Wisconsin voters to ask more specifically about the components of the reforms, and finds that Wisconsin voters support at least some of them: Consistent with a survey conducted...

<p>Shortly after California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978, open warfare broke out in the union movement between leaders of public and private worker groups.</p>
<p>In the Washington Post, an anonymous lieutenant of AFL-CIO president George Meany criticized the aggressive stance of Jerry Wurf, head of American Federation of State County and Municipal workers, in trying to defeat Prop 13, which capped property taxes. The problem, the Post pointed out, was that the AFL-CIO's members were the "taxpaying employers" of Wurf's workers and favored the tax and spending limitations of Prop. 13. "Jerry's big problem with the tax thing lies in convincing the rest of the trade union movement of the legitimacy of the positions he has taken," said the AFL-CIO official.</p>

Why is the looming NFL strike different from all other strikes? Well, first, it's not a strike, it's a lockout. Or at least it will be on March 4, when the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Football League and the player's union expires and the owners padlock the gates. Apparently most sportswriters are rusty when it comes to covering sports labor issues - or perhaps they were never taught that much in the first place - so they don't know the difference. There's a big difference, and even some veteran sportswriters don't seem to know it. Here's the Daily...

NASHVILLE — The Senate Education Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to abolish collective bargaining between teachers unions and school boards across the state. The vote was 6-3, with all Republicans on the panel voting for the bill and all Democrats against. Sponsor Sen. Jack Johnson said passage of the bill — SB113 — will remove 'an albatross from around the neck of our school boards across the state' and remove a roadblock to education reform. Democrats such as Sen. Andy Berke of Chattanooga said the bill is politically motivated and will do nothing to help the education of children....

Unvetted (i.e., without credentials) individuals such as the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison have had a far more beneficial effect on mankind than have all the vaunted, vetted collectives such as the Service Employees International Union, or Napoleon's Army for that matter. Here are a few unvetted individuals I have in mind: Wright brothers, A. Einstein, H. Ford, Thomas Alva Edison, Moses, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus of Nazareth, John Adams, Benito Juarez, Robert Goddard, Ronald Reagan, Frederick Douglass. Often they were at odds with the Establishment and the power structure. They were likely to be dismissed as unusual or strange. On...

In 1928, as America lurched towards the Wall Street Crash, Joseph Stalin revealed his master plan - nature was to be conquered by science, Russia to be made brutally, glitteringly modern and the world transformed by communist endeavour. Into the heart of this vision stepped Trofim Lysenko, a self-taught geneticist who promised to turn Russian wasteland into a grain-laden Garden of Eden. Today, Lysenko is a byword for fraud but in Stalin’s Russia his outlandish ideas about genetic inheritance and evolution became law. They reveal a world of science distorted by ideology, where ideas were literally a matter of life...

Rush Limbaugh, America’s Anchor man, The Doctor of Democracy, America’s Truth Detector, the Harmless Little Fuzz Ball has been of late the victim of a vicious barrage of slander and hate. This onslaught was perpetrated by the collective left in this country over his attempt to partner with a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams, an NFL franchise. These attacks have been fueled and fired by two race-card playing charlatans and apostate Christian leaders of the Left, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (see Matt. 7:16, 21-23; 12:33; 2 Tim. 3:1-6). The Liberal, State-Run Media has been working feverishly...

Thank you also, Mr. President, for this honorary degree. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped paying my student loans in law school. Had I known it was this easy, I would have ran for the United States Senate earlier. You know, it has been about six months now since you sent me to Washington as your United States Senator. I recognize that not all of you voted for me, so for those of you muttering under your breath "I didn't send you anywhere," that's ok too. Maybe we'll hold—what do you call it—a little Pumphandle...

Ukraine's Pursuit of Genocide Designation Upsets Russians Who Say Others Died, Too MOSCOW -- Relations between Russia and Ukraine, bedeviled by disputes over natural gas supplies and NATO expansion, have lately been roiled by one of the great tragedies of Soviet history: the famine of 1932-33, which left millions dead from starvation and related diseases. Ukraine is seeking international recognition of the famine, which Ukrainians call Holodomor -- or death by hunger -- as an act of genocide. When Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin forced peasants off their homesteads and into collective farms, special military units requisitioned grain and other food...

Striding onto a Seattle-area work site with a white hard hat, Jimmy Matta converses in Spanish with Latino laborers who carry paintbrushes, power drills or spackling tools. How much are you getting paid? How many hours are you working? Matta gives them his business card, promises his help and drives off to the next site. A decade of organizing Latino construction workers is paying off for Matta, 32, who recently became the first Latino organizing director of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. Born in Idaho to illegal migrant farmworkers, Matta spent much of his early childhood in the...

South Africa may force more white farmers to sell in order to speed up the transfer of land into nonwhite hands, the agriculture minister said Thursday. Lulu Xingwana also said the government was considering new regulations for foreign land ownership. She said that black South Africans, who make up nearly 80 percent of the population, currently own just 4.7 percent of the land — even though land reform has been a key part of government policy since 1994 to right the wrongs of apartheid. Xingwana and other officials have repeatedly ruled out Zimbabwe-style land grabs, but the public's patience is...

Impasse has Hick in another jam on worker wages. Contract negotiations between Denver sheriff's deputies and the city are deadlocked, putting Mayor John Hickenlooper in another pickle over employee salaries in recent weeks. "Having been all over the country and having seen these things in different places, if this is the way they're doing this in Denver, it's askew," said sheriff's Capt. Frank Gale, who is negotiating on behalf of 740 sheriff's employees, from deputies to captains... The council is scheduled to discuss the sheriff's collective-bargaining negotiations behind closed doors on Monday. What's next? *Now that contract negotiations between the...

Gov. Bill Ritter has signed an executive order giving state government's 49,000 workers the right to join unions or other employee associations but said strikes remain illegal under state law. Ritter said his order authorizes "partnership agreements" that will make better use of workers' abilities and allow them to meet with management to discuss concerns. Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, said "partnership" is another word for collective bargaining that would hurt state government. "This is indeed collective bargaining," Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, reacted strongly against the executive order. "Like reactions in the...

A homeless man was arrested this week at the downtown Central Library after allegedly masturbating in a back aisle and then pulling a knife on a librarian who was trying to escort him out of the building. A security guard used a Taser on the man, who was arrested by police and charged with multiple offenses, from lascivious conduct to aggravated battery. No one, luckily, was injured or killed in the incident. But it's an ugly reminder of a community problem hidden in plain sight. On any given day, you'll find a group of homeless regulars at the Central Library,...

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has been preparing a military-led collective leadership to rule the communist country after his death, a news report said. Kim, 65, who inherited power from his father, had given up the dynastic succession for various reasons, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying. "Chairman Kim, who had picked his eldest son Jong-Nam to succeed to him, changed his mind a few years ago... and is preparing to allow in a collective leadership system," one of the sources said. Some leaders in the North oppose another father-to-son...

Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist, has stumbled on a discovery of earth-shattering importance. It is the arrival of "singularity," and according to him it will happen in 2045. "Gradually," he writes at the beginning of "The Singularity Is Near," "I've become aware of a transforming event looming in the first half of the 21st century … the impending Singularity in our future is increasingly transforming every institution and aspect of human life, from sexuality to spirituality." Singularity, Kurzweil says, is a development "representing a profound and disruptive transformation in human capability" and a "radical upgrading of our bodies' physical...

Freeper Investigation: Cindy Sheehan "Vigil" and "Anti-War Protests" Fake, all bought and paid for by George Soros. I have been reading the stories on Cindy Sheehan and her "Valiant Vigil" at "Camp Casey" as the "Peace Mom" on AP, CBS, AFP, Reuters, etc... and now the "I Shall Return" announcements and speeches being reported about in the wires. I noticed a similarity in each and every story I read. Each referenced one or another "Spokesperson" named Michelle Mulkey, Mike Smith, Steve Smith, Ryan Fletcher. Well, I did a quick investigation and I found that with the exception of Ryan Fletcher,...

Liberals drop public Sheehan role By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES August 31, 2005 Powerful liberal advocacy groups such as MoveOn.org are taking a less active role in Cindy Sheehan's anti-war activities in the wake of criticism that they may have muddied her message. The groups, which played a major role in Mrs. Sheehan's monthlong vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, are scaling back their involvement as Mrs. Sheehan prepares to leave Texas today on a bus tour to Washington.

It is time that we take the word liberal away from the left. The word that is identified with liberty and freedom has been hijacked by those who loath the very concepts that liberty implies. Words such as liberal, socialist and communist have become archaic, and have lost their true meanings. We should choose a new fitting and more descriptive word that better illustrates what leftists are really all about. Liberal theory will always fail because it denies the very nature of human beings. We are individuals and will always live and act in our own self interests. To the...

The ugly truth is that Democrats habitually treat voters like children. It's the basis of their philosophy. Who could possibly be against cutting voter fraud on election day? You'd have to be some sort of fruitcake. But when Georgia's Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue recently signed a bill to reduce voter fraud, under which voters must show a photo ID before casting their ballots, many of Georgia's black legislators stormed out in protest. .................. For legislators to announce that getting a photo ID is too tricky for their constituents is downright amazing. Wouldn't you expect those constituents to say, "Drop dead!...

NEW YORK - Andray Blatche of South Kent Prep in Connecticut believes it would be a good idea for the NBA to raise the minimum age to 20. He just doesn't think it's a good idea for him. Blatche will be entering this June's NBA draft, and his performance - 26 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks - in Saturday night's Jordan Classic high school All-Star game likely left a positive impression on the numerous NBA scouts in attendance. But prep stars Blatche, Louis Williams, Martell Webster, Gerald Green, Monta Ellis and others could become the last group of high...

Should a serious research university consider hiring a fascist? This question doesn't have an easy answer. After all, prior to World War II Europe produced several brilliant political theorists and philosophers who could be characterized as fascists, or proto-fascists, including Joseph de Maistre, Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger. Whether, post-Auschwitz, it's possible even in theory to advocate similar views in intellectually plausible ways is an interesting question. It is not, however, a question that has any relevance to the case of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, despite the obvious fascistic streak in Churchill's writings and public performances. As a...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he signed an order to immediately expropriate the assets of Venepal, a bankrupt paper company that halted operations last month. Chavez met with former Venepal employees to sign the expropriation order. The workers vowed to rebuild the company with the help of the government and manufacture books and notebooks the government could use in public schools and other education-related social projects. Chavez, a self-described "revolutionary" and critic of unbridled capitalism, said Venepal's expropriation is a step in Venezuela's new economic self-development model. "We're at war against poverty and against misery in Venezuela," he...

There have been many contests for the soul of America, some predating the founding of the country but forming the bedrock America was built upon. Fortunately for us, ours is a legacy of builders, not adventurers. The treasures of the Aztecs and the Incas were not to be found on the North American continent, which I believe was one of the greatest fortunes of history for what would become the United States. The English colonies by and large attracted people intent on building a life, not personal fortunes. Our heritage is that of Puritans and Catholics escaping religious persecution. Our...

Burning Man, infamous for its drug-fueled debauchery in the wind- whipped Nevada desert, may seem like the last place to haul the kids for a family vacation. But the annual experiment in radical self-expression, communal living and massive interactive art is becoming something of a counterculture Disneyland as increasing numbers of Burners from the Bay Area and beyond are bringing their young ones to Black Rock City. To the uninitiated, a dry lakebed in the middle of nowhere -- plagued by dust storms and extreme temperatures and inhabited by no small number of naked people -- sounds like no place...

Thank you, everybody, for being here today. I'm very grateful you came out today to listen to me and hear my thoughts. We just spent a weekend in this country thinking about fatherhood. I couldn't be with my son this weekend, but he sent me the most beautiful picture. It's a picture of him in a James Bond costume. He's got an oversized tuxedo on, and he's got a hat that is way too big, and kind of askew. He's got this look on his face, and I think he's trying to be cunning, but he looks a little bit...

The snow shovels may come out of hibernation this weekend, when cold fronts moving in from the north and south dump several inches of the white stuff across Boston and outlying areas. And state-contracted plow drivers are considering sitting the storm out. ``Saturday looks ugly,'' said Alan Dunham of the National Weather Service in Taunton. ``There's a possibility of more than 6 inches of snow. We don't expect the snow to clear up until Sunday morning.'' That could mean bad news for drivers if snow-plow operators in a contract dispute with the state refuse to show up when called to...

If, as Kofi Annan said at the United Nations this week "the last 12 months have been very painful to those of us who believe in collective answers to our common problems," let's hope the U.N. General Secretary listened carefully to President Bush's remarks before the General Assembly. "The Security Council was right to be alarmed," Bush said, referring to the 17 Security Council resolutions on disarming Saddam Hussein. "The Security Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons and prove that it had done so. The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq...

Lithuanians, Jews, Nazis, the Holocaust, and Collective Guilt By Andrew L. Jaffee, August 14, 2003 Home Search Forum Terms Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. - Jesus of Nazareth, from the Gospel of John "All Jews are communists." "All Lithuanians are Nazis." Have you heard these things said before? I have. A recent visit to the State Jewish Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania spurred me to think very carefully about collective guilt and the Holocaust. Being an American of both Lithuanian and Jewish ancestry has sometimes put me in an awkward position. First, I'm born and raised American--you know,...